Volkswagen will not change name of U.S. operations: sources • Hacker News Board

Re: Volkswagen will not change name of U.S. operations: sources

#61

Post by buu700 » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 10:58 PM UTC

Sudophysics wrote: post #15

jonplackett wrote: post #4

This does not do much to restore my trust in VW

Can't wait for cryptogate when we find out that all cars are mining Voltcoin/Bitcoin and depositing back into VWs bank accounts as a type of carbon payback loop "well, unless you can prove your energy is 100% renewable we're going to assume your city is powered by natural gas/coal" while 100% profiting from it e.g..

That's an interesting idea. I could see car companies offering discounts for ad- and/or cryptomining-supported models (similar to Amazon's model with Kindle hardware).

Re: Volkswagen will not change name of U.S. operations: sources

#62

Post by medicineman » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 10:59 PM UTC

adrianb wrote: post #49

If anything, this is an amazing insight onto how the media will report anything from a press release without a minimum of investigation. The name change was essentially breaking news everywhere. - they're changing the almost 100 years old name with... a pun on that name? Even a teenager would see it as a joke. - the announcement comes out 2 days before April 1st and is deleted from the website shortly after publishin…

>I'm worried if we trust a press that can be so easily and obviously misled.

I'm embracing the fact tat you only came to this conclusion now when it is already too late. Press is dunzo.

Re: Volkswagen will not change name of U.S. operations: sources

#63

Post by jackTheMan » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 10:59 PM UTC

softwaredoug wrote: post #18

It is quite interesting from a branding perspective how hard it may be for traditional car companies to convince you to buy their electric car. Is a company like VW really investing, in the long run, in electric cars in the way Tesla is? Should I _really_ trust their one-off electric car they build to dip their toe in? You wonder what it WOULD take for VW, Chevy, Ford, Toyota etc to convince you their product and com…

I fear the other way, that Elon will jump on the next thing before Tesla becomes more than a rounding error.

Re: Volkswagen will not change name of U.S. operations: sources

#64

Post by UnFleshedOne » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 11:00 PM UTC

softwaredoug wrote: post #18

It is quite interesting from a branding perspective how hard it may be for traditional car companies to convince you to buy their electric car. Is a company like VW really investing, in the long run, in electric cars in the way Tesla is? Should I _really_ trust their one-off electric car they build to dip their toe in? You wonder what it WOULD take for VW, Chevy, Ford, Toyota etc to convince you their product and com…

Toyota actually made a plugin hybrid with a reasonable electric only range (68km or so), which is a great way to gradually switch people to electric. That seems to be a sweet spot range-wise -- to the point that they say to run on gasoline occasionally otherwise it can go bad in a year and corrode fuel system.

Re: Volkswagen will not change name of U.S. operations: sources

#65

Post by luhn » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 11:01 PM UTC

adrianb wrote: post #42

abledon wrote: post #24

I don't like the name but it begs the question... Is April fools the 'marketing dept' version of 'Staging' in a CI/CD pipeline? (or maybe blue/green deployment is better analogy !) Like, if the tests fail (the public is enraged at your tweak ex. 'volt'swagen) , rollback the change under the guise of 'April fools'

Obituaries are prematurely published all the time. I'm surprised April's Fools aren't published early more often.

> Obituaries are prematurely published all the time

Unless you're describing Death Note I'm not sure what you mean by this.

Re: Volkswagen will not change name of U.S. operations: sources

#66

Post by dheera » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 11:02 PM UTC

adrianb wrote: post #49

If anything, this is an amazing insight onto how the media will report anything from a press release without a minimum of investigation. The name change was essentially breaking news everywhere. - they're changing the almost 100 years old name with... a pun on that name? Even a teenager would see it as a joke. - the announcement comes out 2 days before April 1st and is deleted from the website shortly after publishin…

Also, why is this such a big deal?

Just change the name and change it back, the media can have at it, not their problem. Ultimately it's the car that matters.

Re: Volkswagen will not change name of U.S. operations: sources

#67

Post by subpixel » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 11:02 PM UTC

The tail is wagging the dog here. A pretty genius marketing move proved to be too clever by half for corporate strategy-types, resulting in lost potential. They will not get this genie back in the bottle - the thrill is gone.

Re: Volkswagen will not change name of U.S. operations: sources

#68

Post by stakkur » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 11:03 PM UTC

A

Re: Volkswagen will not change name of U.S. operations: sources

#69

Post by whatshisface » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 11:04 PM UTC

zeckalpha wrote: post #53

Surprised this thread hasn’t Godwin’s lawed yet... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Völkisch_movement

Volkswagen was a whole lot more related to the Nazi war effort than a semi-happenstance connection to a word that sounds like their name, they built military hardware[0]. The vast majority of the companies in Germany at that time assisted with the war in some way.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_K%C3%BCbelwagen

Re: Volkswagen will not change name of U.S. operations: sources

#70

Post by tikhonj » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 11:05 PM UTC

luhn wrote: post #65

adrianb wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obituaries are prematurely published all the time. I'm surprised April's Fools aren't published early more often.

> Obituaries are prematurely published all the time Unless you're describing Death Note I'm not sure what you mean by this.

Publications have pre-written obituaries for famous people to make sure they can respond immediately when somebody famous dies. Occasionally these obituaries get published in response to incorrect rumors or simply through some kind of internal error—always a bit awkward!